Trailhead Technology Partners

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP of Technology Services of Montage Furniture Services

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Warranty protection and service for multiple retail lines of business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Trailhead Technology Partners to accomplish?

• Completely overhaul our web-based architecture and rewrite or create all new, front-facing portals and marketing sites
• Support Montage in an on-going capacity with new technology initiatives
• Deliver a rebuilt technician portal
• Deliver a Shopify e-commerce application for the facilitation of online sales

SOLUTION

How did you find Trailhead Technology Partners?

Referral

Why did you select Trailhead Technology Partners over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Trailhead Technology Partners were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The project was to deliver a cloud-based rearchitecture of Montage's web platform, including rewriting, from the ground up, a new retailer portal, and the creation of a brand new consumer portal. In addition, we further engaged them to rewrite our technician portal from the ground up and to develop a Shopify application for the facilitation of plan sales via retailer's Shopify stores.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Trailhead’s impact on our business has been significant.

From a market perspective, we moved from being behind the technological curve to being viewed as the technology and usability leaders in our space. Our portals are widely regarded as the best in our industry, based on regular feedback from our partners and retailers.

Montage also saw significant operational improvement. Through automation across our portals and Power Platform environment, we materially streamlined workflows. Since launching these systems, we've been able to deliver substantive material savings to Operations while improving service reliability. The financial impact to the company has been meaningful.

Beyond the measurable outcomes, the systems we implemented gave us a scalable foundation. We built something modern and extensible rather than continuing to layer complexity on top of legacy systems.

I would describe the Trailhead relationship as a true vendor partnership. Trailhead delivers products you can be proud of, stands behind their work, and cares about the outcome. I can’t ask for more than that from a partner.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

All items were delivered on time and within a very challenging framework. In parallel to everything they were doing, there was a CRM launch and intensive data migration from the company's legacy claims management system.

At no point during that project, or any of our subsequent initiatives regarding our technician portal or Shopify application, did they fail to deliver or respond to our needs. They represent true partnership in their commitment and ownership of our success.

What was your primary form of communication with Trailhead Technology Partners?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The most impressive and unique thing about this company is their dedication and unwavering commitment to the projects and the organization. I have worked with many service providers over the years and have experienced both the high and lows. Trailhead represents the pinnacle of the highs as they not only delivered for us, time and again, in a challenging environment and sometimes within tight deadlines, but they did so while giving us products that helped us stand out in the industry.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Trailhead Technology Partners could have done differently?

The only two things I would suggest for areas of improvement are:

1) Managing ambiguity -- as an IT professional, I both understand and can empathize with the challenges of dealing with a business that may not fully know what it wants. The path between "high-level concept" and "crystal clear Statement of Work" is not always a straight one.

2) Their estimation model has improved over the years but, at times, spanned too wide a range to effectively sell the solution to the executive team.